This invention relates to verification of a servo track formed on a tape-like recording medium and used to exercise track-following servo control over heads for writing or reading data onto or from the tape-like recording medium. More specifically, apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a servo track verification apparatus, a servo track verification method, and a servo writer having a capability of servo track verification, adaptable to multiple format types of servo patterns.
The never-failing need for increased storage capacity of tape-like recording media has been giving the technicians a challenge to achieve greater storage density of recorded data. In areas other than data-recordable areas on a tape-like recording medium, servo tracks in which servo patterns are written are formed along the length of the tape-like recording medium. The servo tracks are used to allow read/write heads to trace data tracks on the tape-like recording medium; it would therefore be desirable to write the servo patterns on the servo tracks of the tape-like recording medium with a great degree of precision.
The servo patterns are written to form the servo tracks on the tape-like recording medium during manufacturing at the factory, and are inspected using a servo track verification apparatus under strict quality controls to verify the precision of the servo tracks formed on the tape-like recording medium. The applicant has previously proposed such a verification apparatus in JP 2002-367101 A and its family U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,050 issued on Mar. 8, 2005, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The format types of servo patterns written in the servo tracks differ among standards of the tape-like recording medium, and manufacturers of tape-like recording media are equipped with multiple servo track verification apparatuses of different types corresponding to the format types of different standards of media to be provided. Accordingly, a large capital investment, as thus required, in equipment of the multiple servo track verification apparatuses for respective standards of media would disadvantageously cause a squeeze on profits. Further, replacement of equipment in a production line for changing the standards of the tape-like recording medium to be manufactured would disadvantageously involve enormous labor in updating the system, thus reducing the productivity.
Against this backdrop, the present invention has been made in an attempt to eliminate the above disadvantages.
Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, the present invention is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment of the present invention may not overcome any of the problems described above.